Feed mechanism for stapling machines



Aug. 16, 1955' H. J. SPENCER FEED MECHANISM FOR STAPLING MACHINES Filed March 17, 1954 United States Patent FEED MECHANISM FOR STAPLING MACHINES Herman J. Spencer, Ingomar, Pa.

Application March 17, 1954, Serial No. 416,782

2 Claims. (Cl. 1-49) This invention relates to stapling machines, and the primary object of this invention is to generally improve the same.

Such machines usually have a staple guide with a spring actuated pusher slidable thereon. ln rear loading machines the pusher is usually removable but in some cases the pusher is held at the loading end of the device and staples are fed onto the guide bar below the pusher and in some cases over or above the pusher. In the latter case, the pusher obstructs the lower part of'the guide bar and thereby only short legged staples can be inserted into the machine.

One object of this invention is to provide means at the loading end of the staple guide that will permit the pusher to be held and inverted to a position in which the staples having legs equal to the full heighth of the guide bar can be inserted thereon.

Another object is to provide parts which are economical to manufacture and to assemble. The magazine 1 contains a staple guide which terminates at a driving throat 8. A pusher 7 is astride and movable along the guide bar 5 towards the driving throat 8 under the influence of the feeder spring 6. An assembled driver unit is reciprocably mounted in one end of the magazine 1 for reciprocation in said driving throat 8 for driving staples from the magazine 1 in the usual manner.

Referring to the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a stapling machine illustrating the pusher on the staple guide and being urged by the feeder spring to move the staples towards the driving throat;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the loading end of the stapler showing the pusher pulled to the rear end of the magazine;

Figure 3 is a plan view of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the loading end of the stapler with part of the nearest side removed to show the pusher as having been inverted to permit staples to be loaded onto the staple guide above the pusher;

Figure 5 is a transverse sectional view along the line VV of Figure 2 but showing the complete machine to illustrate the relation between the pusher, the staple guide and the pin 14;

Figure 6 is a plan view of pin 14;

Figure 7 is an isometric view of the rear end of the staple guide;

Figure 8 is an isometric view of the pusher.

The magazine 1 is of channel shape in cross-section comprising a bottom wall 2 and parallel side walls 3 extending upwardly therefrom as shown in Figures 1 and 5. The left and right hand hold-down brackets 4 are right angle shaped in cross-section and they are welded to the inwardly sides of the side walls 3 of the magazine 1 with their short flanges extending towards each other and longitudinally substantially the full length of the device to overlie and restrict staples from moving upwardly. See Figures 1 and 3.

A U-shaped head 30 has a central portion 31 extendill) 2,715,220 Patented Aug. 16, 1955 ing transversely and vertically, the lower part of which acts as the front wall of the driving throat 8. The central portion 31 of head 30 has two integral flanges 32 which extend longitudinally towards the opposite end of the machine and vertically above the side walls 3 of the magazine 1, the flanges 32 fitting within and secured to the ends of the side walls 3 of the magazine 1 at the front end thereof. The lower inwardly sides 33 of flanges 32 of head 30 act as the sideward walls of the driving throat 8. See Figures 1 and 5. The vertical ends of flanges 32 of head 30 which extend above the side walls 3 of the magazine 1 are formed towards each other a short longitudinal distance from their central portion 31 to form rearward guide walls 34 for guiding the rearward side of the assembled driver 10. See Figures 1 and 3. A vertically extending slot 35 is provided in the central portion 31 and the vertical edges of the rearward guides are notched at 36 to provide another vertical slot in alignment with slot 35 of the head 30 with the upper end of slot 35 limiting vertical upward movement of the assembled driver 10 by a pin 37 secured to the driver 10.

The staple guide 5 is U-shaped in cross-section having a bottom wall 6 and upstanding parallel side walls 7 upon which U-shaped staples S may ride straddle fashion to be fed therealong to the driving throat 8 for delivery to the assembled driver 10. The side walls 7 are pierced at 29 adjacent their front ends to receive the transversely positioned pin 9 and the feeder spring pulley 12 is mounted on pin 9 between the side Walls 7 of the staple guide 5. See Figures 1 and 7. The side walls 7 of the staple guide 5 extend a short distance beyond the opposite end of the guides bottom wall 6 to form guides 15 (Figure 7) which have been evenly pressed towards each other a slight amount. Guides 15 have aligned longitudinally extending a slots 16 which are open towards the one end of the staple guide 5 and are closed at their depending hookshaped ends 17, the latter being at the loading end of the device. See Figures 1 and 7.

The pusher is of channel shape in cross-section having a central web 18 which has spaced apart depending flanges 19 and is adapted to straddle the side walls 7 of the staple guide 5 for moving staples S along and towards the front end of the staple guide 5. A finger grip 21 has a web section 22 which has spaced apart parallel depending flanges 23 which are in parallel alignment with and spaced apart from the inwardly sides of the depending flanges 19 of the pusher 20. See Figures 5 and 8. Flanges 23 have aligned pierced holes 24 adapted to receive the enlarged central portion of pin 14 to position the latter transversely in the device. See Figures 3 and 8. The upper side of the web 22 of the finger grip 21 is welded or otherwise secured to the under side of the central web 18 of the pusher 20 as shown in Figure 8 and it has a tab 25 formed upwardly to act as a finger grip for retracting the pusher 20 when loading of the device is required.

It will be noticed in Figures 3, 5, and 6 that the ends 13 are of less diameter than the central portion of pin 14 and that ends 13 are adapted thereby to move along the length of slots 16 and further that the larger central portion of pin 14 prevents the latter from moving transversely in relation to the guides 15 when ends 13 of pin 14 are in slots 16. It will also be noticed in Figures 3 and 5 that pin 14 is only slightly less in length than the space between the side walls 7 of the staple guide 5 and that pin 14 can therefore move longitudinally but is restricted from moving transversely in relation to the staple guide 5.

The feeder spring 11 has one end 26 held on lug 27, the latter being formed upwardly from the bottom wall 6 of the staple guide 5 adjacent to its rear end. The feeder spring 11 is brought upwardly around pulley 12 with its other end 28 being brought back to overlie its lower strand. The feeder spring end 28 is placed between the depending flanges 23 which are attached to the pusher 20 and pin 14 while passing through a coil of spring end 28 of the feeder, spring ll is entered into holes 24 ,of flanges 2}. with ends 13 of pin 14 protruding from the outwardly sides of flanges 23, as shown in Fig. 3.

, To load the magazine the. pusher is retracted by manually gripping the tab 25 and retracting the pusher to the rear end of the magazine. As the pusher is retracted, the ends 13 on pin 14 will be guided in the slots 16 formed in the staple guide 5 to the position shown in Figure 2 whereupon by rotating the pusher clockwise the extensions 13 on the pin 14 may be lowered into the hooked-shaped slots 17 where the pusher will be retained against the pull of the spring 11, see Figure 4; After the staples have been loaded onto the staple guide 5, the pusher 20. is rotated counter-clockwise on pin 14 to its horizontal staple feeding position on the staple guide 5 behind the staples S with pin 14 being moved upwardly out of the hook-shaped ends 17 of the slots 16 of the guide bar 5 to the longitudinally extending portions of slots 16 to thereby permit the feeder spring 11 to pull the pusher 20 to feed the staples towards the driving throat 8. I claim: H 1 In a stapling machine, a magazine, a driving throat at one end of said magazine, a staple guide having one end terminating at said throat, means for holding fasteners in proper alignment on said staple guide, a ro- A tative fastener pusher movable along said staple guide for urging fasteners towards said driving thrOat spring means for urging said pusher towards said driving throat, retainer means at the opposite end of said staple guide for releasably holding said pusher against the pull of said spring means, and means at said opposite end of said staple guide cooperating with said pusher whereby the latter can be swung from a staple urging position to a position in which the pusher is inverted and hangs downwardly to thereby permit staples to be fed onto the said opposite end of said staple guide.

2. Claim 1 and further characterized by a transversely extending pin carried by said pusher, said spring means attached to said pin for urging said pusher in the direction of said driving throat, slots which have a depending hook shape at the loading end of said staple guide which are open towards the driving throat of said staple guide and are thereby adapted to receive the ends of said pin as the latter is moved towards the loadingrend of'said staple guide with said pusher to thereby hold the latter against the pull of said spring means, said hooked shaped slots receiving said pin as said pusher is inverted downwardly and said pin is moved into the hooked shaped slots.

References Cited in the file of this patent Germany Apr. 4, 1 884 

